


Motive

by tanarill



Series: Lifthrasr [3]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Babies, Canonical Character Death, Children, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Family Issues, Food, Genderfluid Character, Goddesses, Idiots in Love, Love, M/M, Meet the Family, Motherhood, Multi, Past Character Death, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-28
Updated: 2007-09-28
Packaged: 2019-10-05 18:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17330588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanarill/pseuds/tanarill
Summary: Odin meets his youngest grandchild. Things somehow manage not to go downhill from there.





	Motive

Odin lived in Chicago.

Odin did not want to invite Loki and Baldr and little Ymira. The fact that (due to the machinations of interested third parties) the two had even been married was a thorn in his side to begin with. Baldr had always been the best of his sons, and he disapproved that Loki should be the one to capture his heart. Frigg had more sense; although she was not as skilled as the ever-elusive Laufey, she could see what was coming just as clearly. A future in which Loki hated the Aesr still and Baldr was estranged was not a nice future.

So Odin had invited the three of them to dinner.

Loki was female. This angered Odin for about two seconds, until Ymira cried and Loki shot a pained look to Frigg and Frigg said “Teething?” and Loki nodded and Odin realized she was female because Ymira _wasn’t on solids yet_. Frigg took Loki off somewhere, to feed Ymira. Loki made a disturbingly pretty woman. Although she wasn’t exactly _beautiful_ , she was made to be a mother.

He looked at Bladr, who looked him back straight in the eyes. On Baldr, who had a habit of looking shyly away, it was disconcerting. “Hello, father,” he said.

They hadn’t seen, talked to, or had any contact with each other since the baby naming.

“Hello, Baldr.”

(The baby naming itself had been eminently memorable. Ymira, eight days old, had slept through most of it; but when the time had come to name her, she’d opened up blue, blue eyes and said, quite clearly, “I am Ymira.” She hadn’t spoken since. No one, except maybe Thokk, knew if this was because her naming had been a fluke or merely because she simply didn’t feel like speaking.)

The silence broadened, thickened, grew deeper and more dangerous until it flowed between them like a whitewater river. Baldr didn’t say anything, and anything that Odin might have said was strictly forbidden by Frigg.

In the background, a clock (it was a horrible clock, one of the smiling cat ones where the tail moved back and forth and the eyes followed you about the room) counted off the seconds. Eventually, knowing that Baldr would know a lie if he heard it, Odin said, “Loki looks well.”

“Yes. She won’t admit it, but I think she likes being a mother. Although given how much she hates being a female, I’m wondering how long that will last after Ymira finishes growing her teeth.”

That seemed to break the ice. “Well, I remember what _you_ were like. Even after you were on solids, you stuck close to Frigg. But somehow, I doubt she’ll stay still that long.”

“She hasn’t yet,” said Baldr. “Thokk’s a blessing. I don’t know how humans do it, given that there are three of us and we’re still barely enough to keep up with her.”

Odin looked at his son in shock. “ _Three_ of you? And you’re still alive? Your mother and I never attempted it with less than twelve women around to keep watch in shifts and an equal number of men around to boil the water.”

Baldr gave him another of those clear-eyes gazes. “Yes, well, Thokk is . . . unconventional.”

Odin thought about the kind of woman it would have taken to raise Loki, and said, “I’ll bet.”

It was about this point that Frigg and Loki reappeared. Frigg was holding Ymira, who was to all appearances sleeping soundly. Loki was glowing, and that wasn’t a figure of speech. The light was soft and ruddy and, much like Loki’s eyes, it flickered like fire. She walked over to Baldr and didn’t exactly embrace him, but curled an arm about him and set her head in the crook of his shoulder. “Your mother is a wonder, love.”

He knew, of course, what Baldr and Loki did together. It would have been hard _not_ to know, after they’d shown up with Hel in tow and demanded a wedding (or rather, Loki had demanded a wedding and Baldr had just kind of stood there exuding happiness). The fact that Loki was currently a woman only made the entire thing _more_ profoundly weird. But that single motion, a short sentence, somehow spoke louder than the millennium Baldr had spent dead at Loki’s scheming.

He wondered why he’d never noticed it before.

And then he wondered _why_ , if Loki had always felt that way, he’d killed Baldr.

He didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until their incredulous looks stopped him.

There was a very still moment, as Frigg’s glare shot him daggers and Baldr’s pained glance told him quite clearly what would happen if he’d upset Loki. Then it shattered and Loki said, simply and without preamble, without any kind of shame at all, “So that no one else could. Frigg, when’s dinner? I’m famished.”

“When it’s ready, dear. Unless you’d like to come check with me?” She clearly did not expect both Loki and Baldr to take her up on the offer. The three of them wandered off toward the kitchen, leaving Odin to puzzle through his (currently) daughter-in-law’s words.

“So that nobody else could,” he repeated out loud. “A better reason than I had for killing Ymir.” He shook his head. “Loki, you remain a mystery.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please poke me for spelling or grammar issues.
> 
> Why do cauliflowers have to hate me so much? It is Sad. :<


End file.
